Facebook Home now available for download

OK, boys and girls. Now's the time to see what all the fuss is about over this Facebook Home thing. As promised, it's now available in the United States, for free, from the Google Play Store. (It's actually still propagating in Google Play as we write this. If you don't see it immediately, hang tight. It's coming.)

If you've somehow missed all the hullabaloo over the past week, Facebook Home is part custom launcher, part messaging client -- and all Facebook. You install it and get your friends Facebook posts front and center, in a nicely designed sort of lock screen called "cover feed." Then there's the "chat heads" messaging system -- it went live this morning in the Facebook Messenger app which pops up your friends profile pictures in little persistent bubbles. The traditional Facebook application is still there, of course.